Lexus has imagined two different autonomous futures that will help us relax

When it comes to self-driving vehicles, one of the biggest complaints is that they’ll take away the reactive and human elements of driving that force us to make split-second decisions and not, you know, immediately crash into the walls when the car is unleashed. It’s hard to relax and let code control your vehicle. But Lexus has partnered with two TED fellows to design two different ways to start relaxing in our self-driving cars.

The TED Fellows program allows researchers from many disciplines to receive support, build community, and come up with some really interesting ideas on how we can fuel our future. There are activists, artists, scientists, lawyers, cosmetologists and more. And Lexus has paired with colleagues Greg Gage and Sarah Sandman, asking the two to envision a self-reliant future where humans will feel relaxed but connected in their cars.

We’ll start with the ideas of Greg Gage. Gage is a neuroscientist, engineer, and robotics – all very important things when it comes to autonomous technology. Many different cars incorporate technology that can detect your facial expressions based on your level of alertness, but Gage goes even further. He imagines that your car will be able to smell all your emotions and take immediate action to influence them.

So if you are tired he might recline the seat. If you’re excited, you can kick off your playlist. The idea is that you can relax if your car takes the controls according to your mood. It’s designed to be non-invasive, but I think some people might feel a bit overwhelmed if their car knew about it, like: all about them.

You can listen to Gage talk more about it in depth here.

Sarah Sandman comes to self-reliance in a completely different direction. She’s an artist and designer, so her vision turns an autonomous car into a glass box filled with swivel seats. The goal is to interact with the world around you – or even your loved ones – in ways that you currently cannot while driving. It’s a bit like a movable table in a cafe; you can chat with the people in your own little sphere, or you can push a button and communicate with the people outside your vehicle.

It’s a little more abstract than Gage’s vision, but Sandman sees self-driving cars as a way to bond with the community, which will theoretically relax you by making you think less about the technology that moves you from point A to point B and more to the people around you.

You can listen to Sandman discuss more about this here.

Again, the kind of full autonomy these designs need is always loooooooong Really far. The technology is still very recent and no country has the infrastructure that could operate full autonomy. We’re not going to let our cars feel our heartbeat for a while.

But Lexus’ goal is to begin to allay the anxieties that already exist about our future possibilities, by solving problems before they even arise. If we have a better idea of ​​what to expect when our cars start to develop more autonomous features, the whole anxiety problem will start to resolve itself.